Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills for Developmental Language Disorder
This study, called "Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills" (EA-SHELLS), is testing a new training program for pre-kindergarten (pre-K) teachers. The goal is to see if this program helps teachers improve how they teach language and reading skills to children, especially those with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Teachers will attend a workshop and have coaching sessions to learn the EA-SHELLS approach. Researchers will then measure the language and reading skills of the children in these teachers' classrooms, both before and after the training period. This will help determine if the EA-SHELLS approach improves children's vocabulary, story understanding, and other important language skills. The study plans to enroll 360 participants.
- Study design
- This is an interventional study that plans to enroll 360 participants. It focuses on training teachers to use a specific instructional approach in their classrooms.
- What's involved
- Teachers will participate in a 6-hour workshop and about 14 in-person coaching sessions over a 14-week training period. Children's language skills will be assessed at the beginning, end, and every 2-4 weeks during the training period.
- Compensation
- Not stated in the trial record.
- Follow-up
- Children's language skills are measured at Baseline and post 14-week training period, as well as every 2-4 weeks during the training period.
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Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills
At a glance
Conditions
NCT07103044
Where you'd take part
This study runs at 1 site. They're the same protocol — you choose where, and that choice sets who your contact draft is addressed to.
Kennedy Krieger Institute
Baltimore, Marylandstudy coordinator listed
Recruiting
Sites open and close at different times, so the status above is per site — it can differ from the study's overall status.
Study leadership
- Rebecca Landa, PhD · PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR · Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger Institute
Who to contact
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What this trial measures
- Assessment of Story Comprehension (ASC)Baseline and post 14-week training period
This measure serves as an indicator of narrative comprehension at pre- and post-treatment time points. Students will be administered two parallel versions of this assessment at both testing points. The combined raw score will be used for comparison. This measure was used in iterative development phases and will be used in the RCT
- Narrative Language Measure - Listening (NLM)Baseline
This measure serves as an indicator of narrative comprehension at pre- and post-treatment time points. Students will be administered two parallel versions of this assessment at both testing points. The combined raw score will be used for comparison. This measure was used in iterative development phases and will be used in the RC
- Vocabulary AssessmentBaseline and post 14-week training period as well as every 2-4 weeks during the training period.
This researcher created measure assesses vocabulary learning throughout the study. Students will participate in testing at pre- and post-treatment time points. Additionally, students will participate in monthly intra-intervention testing. Raw scores will be used for data analyses. This measure was used in iterative development phases. It was revised across phases. The most updated version will be used in the RCT.
- The Narrative Assessment Protocol-Second Edition (NAP-2)Baseline and post 16-week training period
This measure was used in early iterative phases to measure syntax and narrative production, without transcription. Two stories were used (equated on length and difficulty) each at pre-, mid-point and post-treatment (constant across children and phases), with one story given at all three times to control for confounding effects of different stories administered per the authors' recommendation.
- Expressive Vocabulary Test, Third Edition (EVT-3; Williams, 2019)Baseline (served as a participant characterization measure).
This student assessment was used in early iterative phases of this research. It was used as a direct assessment of generalized expressive vocabulary performance. This measure will not be used in the RCT.